"I see the world in 50 years, perhaps 100, as a dark place," Goodall said.

What's terrifying about Goodall's vision isn't how dystopian it sounds, but rather how prescient it's already proven to be.

From the spread of deadly, antibiotic-resistant superbugs to the destruction of habitats that are home to critical life-prolonging drugs, Goodall was right on the money.

Here are three main predictions Goodall made that are already coming true:

1. People will be fleeing their homes

"Environmental refugees," Goodall told the Times, "will have fled their destroyed homelands, flooded by the rising seas or buried by the encroaching deserts. Many people will be starving as they fight for access to water and land."

Flooding is seen along the Mississippi River in Clarksville, Missouri, on April 21, 2013.
REUTERS/Office of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon/Handout
As the world gets warmer, the lives of the people who reside here will become bleaker: If they do not move, rising floodwaters and warmer temperatures will leave them more susceptible to pests and disease. The economic value of their lands will decrease and they will become poorer. Those who do migrate away will also struggle — these people will have to take on new, possibly different jobs for which they may lack the proper training or education.

CDC

2. Infections will be harder to control

"Medical science will be unable to cope with new infections," Goodall said, "as bacteria build up resistance to more and more antibiotics and the tropical forests where so many medical cures are sourced are destroyed."

They've already come to the United States, fueled in part by our country's overuse of antibiotics on farms and in hospitals. Last year, 23,000 Americans died from bacterial infections that didn't respond to antibiotics. Certain strains of "nightmare bacteria" kill up to half of the patients they infect, and cases are becoming increasingly common across 42 states.

The loss of these lush forests won't just affect the animals and plants who live there or the people who live in their immediate vicinity. We get a large portion of our medicines, including the drugs we use to fight deadly diseases like cancer, from the rainforest. The popular cancer drug Taxol, for example, was originally isolated from the seeds of the Cowtail Pine, a small tree that grows only in deep, partially-shaded soils like the kind fostered by the giant trees and sheltered canopies of the rainforest.

"Mother Nature is resilient," Goodall told the Times, "but the time is fast approaching when she will be battered beyond her ability to restore herself. We must make a choice."